Peter Parker's Parents
by Al Evans
Summary: In Aunt May's attic Peter Parker uncovers secrets about his parents he'd rather have left buried
1. Chapter 1

_This fanfic is sort of my own take on the Peter Parker parents storyline from the 1990s comics as well as the 1994 cartoon. It uses the parents plotline but it also focuses somewhat upon Pete and MJ's relationship._

_Please leave a review as I am keen for feedback._

* * *

Peter coughed slightly as dust surrounded him.

"You alright up there dear?"

"I'm fine Aunt May!"

"Well don't do yourself an injury on my account."

"I won't!"

May had called Peter over in order to clear out the attic. She felt she'd accumulated quite enough junk over the years and wanted to make some room. Peter was more than willing to do it, but from his discussions with Mary Jane he also knew May had an ulterior motive which he was less than thrilled about.

As he continued this train of thought Peter began sifting through a pile of old bills in the attic.

Whilst it had been a good long while since her last health scare, May was on the wrong side of 80. Peter and MJ had deduced that her sudden urge to clear out the old Parker home in Forest Hills was not so she could fill it with any new worldly possessions she might acquire. Rather it was May's way of preparing for Peter and Mary Jane to fill it with _their_ possessions.

Peter continued through the bills now noticing they'd given way to some travelling documents.

Peter and MJ hadn't been married for very long but they'd tentatively discussed and fantasized about someday owning a place of thier own outside of the city; somewhere to raise a family. These had been pie in the sky plans given that they're income wasn't great and that they were far from trying to have kids any time soon. Nevertheless May had wanted the best for them, so Peter and MJ had not all that happily figured out May was either planning on handing the house over to them or was preparing for them to inherit it when her time came.

Peter vaguely registered that the travelling documents related to an awful lot of countries he was sure Aunt May and Uncle Ben had never visited.

Peter didn't discuss or like to think about May's mortality much. May, and her late husband Ben Parker had raised him since Peter's biological parents had died in a plane crash when he was very young. His feelings about his parents had been very conflicted throughout his life. On the one hand he had hardly known them and he couldn't have asked for better parents than May and Ben. But on the other, there was still a certain feeling of sadness and loss on the rare occasions when he did think about them.

He knew next to nothing about his mother, but Uncle Ben had told him his dad looked an awful lot like-

Peter's mind went blank. It was as if all the thoughts in his head had vanished at the sight of the document he had just come across. Printed on it was a tattered and frayed photograph of...himself.

_What is this? I don't remember posing for a photo with a trench coat on?_

As he stared at the picture he began to notice a few things. A slightly differently sized nose, a mole or two out of place and (now that he looked closer) brown eyes.

_But my eyes are blue._ He thought to himself.

Then it hit him.

_Oh my God...This...This is my father._

It was very strange for Peter. He regarded Uncle Ben essentially as his father, but coming face to photo with the man who looked just like him, who WOULD have done all that Ben had done for Peter, stirred something inside of him. A part of him even felt guilty, as if this involuntary feeling was a betrayal of all the years Uncle Ben had dedicated to him. He knew that wasn't true though. He couldn't really explain what he was feeling but it was somewhere between curiosity and sadness.

Peter then noticed several more photos under his father's. Picking them up and examining them he saw another headshot of a young woman and a picture of her in a white dress and veil standing next to his father.

_Mom?_

Peter had never seen any pictures of his mother before. She was beautiful and despite the faded colours of the photograph, Peter could see that he had inherited her blue eyes.

Peter grinned a little bit then bundled the photos up along with some other ones he noticed from the pile of papers. Heading down the attic hatch and then down the stairs he called out.

"Aunt May! MJ! Come see what I found!"

"What's up tiger?" Said MJ, as Peter entered the kitchen.

"I found some old photos of my parents!" Peter lifted up the pile of documents as he said this.

"You're parents?" MJ seemed mildly shocked. She knew even less about Peter's parents than he did and had rarely heard him mention them.

"Yeah. I haven't seen them much before. Where's Aunt May?"

"She just popped over to Aunt Anna's. Should we wait?"

"Nah, she'll be back soon enough. Check these out."

Peter sprawled the pictures onto the kitchen table. MJ picked up the headshot of Peter's father.

"Wow. He looks just like you Peter. What was his name again?"

"Richard. And here's one of my mom, Mary." Peter handed over his mother's picture.

"Hey she was quite the lookers! And she was a bit of a redhead too."

Peter turned to MJ and gave her a sly look. "Guess we Parkers like those." MJ shot him a warm smile and carried on sifting through the photos.

"Here's one of them in Paris, you can see the tower in the background. And I think they're in Egypt in this one."

"They sure did travel around. I found a stash of old travelling papers upstairs, they must have belonged to them."

"Did they travel for fun or was it all for work?"

"I dunno. I never knew what they did for a living. I'll ask Aunt May when she gets back."

"Huh? This one doesn't have them looking their best. They don't look too chipper. Nor does anyone else in the shot to be honest. And what's that weird logo behind them?"

"Let me see." Peter turned his head to the photo MJ was looking at. Peter's eyes widened and his blood chilled. Were it not for the logo MJ pointed out he might not have deduced who the other people in the photo were or why they and his parents had such serious expressions. The symbol was of a skull-like face with tentacles trailing off from it.

At that moment Aunt May walked through the door.

"Hello dears. You haven't been having any trouble with the-" May stopped and stared at the table covered in photos. "What are yo-Oh no! Don't look at those!"

May moved surprisingly fast for someone so old. But as she reached the table she knew it was too late. As Peter looked up he began to lightly stammer.

"Au-Aunt May...Why...Why were my parents in a photo with H.Y.D.R.A. agents?"

The absurdity of the statement, especially given the mundane surroundings and to whom he was talking to, only vaguely registered to Peter.

"Who or what is 'hydra'?" Asked Mary Jane. Peter straightened up and somewhat composed himself.

"They're...They're an elite terrorist group. International. They've been around since World War II."

May's hand reached up and she lightly clenched it. "Peter dear how do you know about those awful people?"

"I work at a newspaper Aunt May, I hear things". It was at least partially true. Peter had also encountered the organisation during his career as Spider-Man. "Aunt May please...please tell me why my parents are in a photo with these people?"

Aunt May moved towards a chair at the table. Rather than sitting in it she simply leant on it with both her arms and gripped it tightly.

"We...me and Ben that is...We didn't want to tell you the truth. We couldn't face it ourselves. It was why we put the photos of them away."

"What truth? What truth Aunt May?" Peter didn't want to sound agitated but he couldn't help it. Suddenly an awful lot of certainties had been thrown into doubt. Suddenly one of the people he loved most in the world, someone he trusted completely, was withholding something big from him and he wanted to know why.

"Peter...just...just sit down okay?" MJ placed a consoling hand on his shoulder. He felt himself relax slightly. He looked down and swallowed hard before doing as MJ asked.

MJ sat down next to Peter and took hold of his right hand which was lying on the table. Pushing the photo towards Aunt May with her other hand, she calmly said: "May...Can you explain this please?"

May stood there for a moment and during that moment Peter briefly worried that this might cause one of her fainting spells. But she simply slowly sat down herself and pulled in closer to the table. Placing her hand on the photograph she took a deep breath.

"You're parents met when they both worked for the government. Whenever we pressed them for details about thier work they began rather boring diatribes which we usually never remembered. One day after the plane crash a man came to this house and sat me and Ben down. He said he was from some kind of government organisation. S.H.I.E.L.D. I think he said. He told us that Richard and Mary were...infiltrators.

Yes, I think that was the word he used. They went to various countries and found thier way in with some very dangerous people, helping to bring them down from the inside."

"You...You're telling me my parents were like something out of James Bond?" Peter's eyes had widened, partially out of disbelief and partially out of scepticism.

"Peter why would I lie to you about this? And if I were, wouldn't you think I'd say something less fantastical?"

"I...So...they were infiltrating H.Y.D.R.A...They wanted to bring them down."

May closed her eyes and a very pained expression crossed her face.

"The man from S.H.I.E.L.D. said they were working off limited intelligence from Russia, that they had no real confirmation. But what they did have seemed to point to..."

"To what" The agitation in Peter's voice had been replaced now by a kind of desperate pleading. MJ squeezed his hand to somehow brace him or otherwise calm him down.

"To...to your parents being...traitors Peter..."

* * *

Much later, in the near darkness of their apartment, Peter was using his arm to lean up against a window staring into the lights of the city below. He heard a soft patter behind him but didn't break his stare. He only registered a reflection from the window in the corner of his eye as it slowly got bigger and bigger. Mary Jane put her hand on his shoulder again.

"Are you okay?" She asked quietly.

Peter mind flashed back to how, after their conversation, May had simply stood up and gone to bed. MJ had gone up and checked on her before coming back down. Without saying a word Peter had looked at her and made moves to leave. That had been four hours ago and he still hadn't said anything since. Now hearing MJ's words, half of him thought it was a stupid question but the other half wondered what else she could have said right then.

"No. Not really." He said this in a low monotone voice. He pressed his head against the window and as he continued his voice grew more and more lost.

"I just...I barely remember them MJ. All I have are a few photos and what Uncle Ben and Aunt May told me. I always had this image, this idea from what little I knew, that they were good people, people to be proud of. But now..." Peter clenched his fist. "Now I might not even have that. But that's just the thing...I _might_ not have that. If they're traitors, in the end I could live with it. I've lived with worse. But...I can't go on not knowing for sure. I _need_ to know the truth."

Slowly, MJ took her hand off of Peter's shoulder and walked away towards thier bedroom. Peter understood. MJ usually helped him with many of his problems. She's have an answer or at least a comforting word here and there. But what could she possibly say to this? What could she do? Peter just hoped that of the two of them, she at least would get a good night's sleep.

However, to his surprise he heard her behind him again a minute later.

"Tiger..." She said softly.

For the first time, Peter broke his gaze out the window and turned around to look at MJ. In her outstretched hand he saw her holding his Spider-Man costume. Firmly, and with a slightly fierce look in her eye she said:

"You go blow off some steam. I'll look up flights to Russia"

Peter stared for a second or two before taking the costume, his hand brushing against MJ's as he did so. Quietly, with a slight quiver he said:

"Thank you."

* * *

A week later Peter emerged from JFK airport and got a cab back to Forest Hills. During the journey he'd had plenty of time to think about what had happened since the day May told him about his parents.

He remembered how the night time swing had helped him clear his head a bit. He remembered how MJ was fretting about affording the flights to Russia, but only until Peter learned she was looking for two tickets. At that point Peter had made it clear he wanted to do this alone and reluctantly MJ had backed off (although Peter thanked her for wanting to come).

He remembered how in Russia, with the help of associates in S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers, he had managed to infiltrate the H.Y.D.R.A. base there and bring them down. And most of all he remembered what he had confirmed about his parents...

Peter stepped out of the cab, paid the driver and walked up to the front door of the May's house. Curiously, despite having a key, he decided to ring the doorbell, as if to announce he was back and give everyone inside fair warning. MJ answered the door. He'd asked her to wait with May instead of meeting him at the airport. The result had evidently made her rather anxious.

"Hey." He said with a small smile. MJ for her part tired briefly to read that smile but it gave nothing away about his mood. So instead, without saying a word, she just hugged him.

When she let go a few seconds later she looked at him quizzically and with concern in her eye. "Well?" She asked.

"I'll tell you inside."

They moved into the kitchen where May was sitting at the very same table where they'd looked through the photos a week earlier. She looked up at him now, frightened but determined.

"Peter..."

Peter breathed in and out through his nostrils as if bracing himself. "In Russia me and Spider-Man made some contacts and met some people. With they're help we found out about my parents..."

"And...?" May asked slightly shaking.

"...They_ were_ agents who worked for H.Y.D.R.A. They _did_ infiltrate other governments. They were regarded as traitors...But only because it was such a good cover."

May's eyes lit up suddenly as if she had heard good news but wanted to wait to make sure. "They were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Aunt May. Double agents pretending to work for H.Y.D.R.A.

They were so covert that only the S.H.I.E.L.D. higher ups knew they were really on our side. If they revealed or risked revealing the truth to anyone, even you and Uncle Ben, then it would have compromised any of their other attempts to infiltrate H.Y.D.R.A.

H.Y.D.R.A. might even have tried to get revenge on them by targeting us. S.H.I.E.L.D. lied to us but for our own protection. They were innocent Aunt May...they were heroes."

May put her hand to her mouth as her eyes glistened with tears. MJ simply beamed. May got up from the kitchen and hugged Peter.

"Oh Peter, this is so wonderful! To have that burden lifted after all this time. To think that I hadn't misjudged them after all. If only Ben had..."

May paused. She was still smiling but there was sadness there too. Peter hugged her again.

"I know Aunt May...I know"

After they let go May wiped the tears from her eyes and clapped her hands together.

"Well there are going to be some changes around here now. To start with, we're going to put up those photos at last, now we've got nothing to be ashamed of."

Peter turned towards the door. "I'll get the photo frames from upstairs"

"No, no, no dear. I'll do that, you've had a long flight and besides I feel as if I could walk on air right now. I want to burn off this excitement"

"But..."

"No buts young man. You sit right down. And Mary Jane dear, if you could be so kind as to make some tea?"

MJ's smile got bigger. "Sure thing May"

As May scooted off upstairs Peter and MJ went to the cupboards to get the cups and teabags out.

"Feel better?" She asked.

"Much." Nodded Peter.

"So...You _did_ get it from somewhere."

Peter looked confused and turned to MJ. "Got what?"

She stopped and turned her head to face him flashing him another of her patented smiles. "Being a hero. Forget spider bites, it was always in your blood."

Peter smiled back. "Guess so. And now...now I can go ahead and remember them that way. Not as traitors and not as strangers either. Parents to be proud of."

"And someday...we could tell her the same about you."

Peter was back to being confused. "Tell who what?"

"That her daddy was a hero...someone to be proud of."

Peter's face tentatively lit up. "You're not..."

MJ giggled a little. "No. But like I said, someday we might be. Someday we _will_ be."

Peter grinned as he leaned over and kissed Mary Jane.

"Who says it'll be a girl?" He whispered afterwards.

"Aunt May. 'Woman's intuition' she called it." She whispered back.

"Well then I guess it'll be a girl." Said Peter, before kissing her again.

* * *

Meanwhile May had found the photos as well as a few small frames and was descending the stairs with them tucked under one arm. The doorbell rang again.

"Now who could that be?" She muttered to herself. More audibly she called out to the kitchen. "Don't worry I'll get it."

May opened the door and dropped the photos and the frames as her hands leapt up to cover her mouth. Hearing the frames smash, Peter and MJ stopped what they were doing and quickly strode into the hallway and towards the front door.

"Aunt May! What..."

They froze at the sight in the doorway. May shakily stood back and to the side of the door allowing it to open up more and fully reveal the visitors. Standing in the doorway, as if in a strange funhouse mirror of where Peter and MJ were standing now were a man and a woman in about thier late forties or early fifties. Though there were lines on her face, the woman was still quite attractive and one could tell she would have been stunning when she was younger, what with her red tinged hair. The man on the other hand was more wrinkled but it was strangely fitting for him. His hair was slightly rescinding and had patches of grey on the sides just above his ears. If Peter were staring into a funhouse mirror then, apart from anything else, it would've been rather strange because this mirror changed the colour of his eyes. The man spoke slowly with a small and sad smile:

"Hello Peter...Hello son."


	2. Chapter 2

_Please leave a review as I am keen for feedback._

* * *

The living room was silent.

Only the sound of an old clock on Aunt May's shelf (and possibly a pin dropping) could be heard.

There were three pieces of furniture in the living room. One sofa for two in front of the window which faced out onto the street, another three seater up against the wall where the living room door was, and an armchair parallel to the first sofa. Despite this, the large three seater was all but vacant leaving a kind of no-man's land in between the other sofa and the armchair.

Richard and Mary Parker were sitting in the sofa whilst Peter had sat himself in the armchair. Mary Jane for her part was leaning on the arm of the largest sofa. Richard, Mary and Mary Jane were all stealing quick glances at one another, and sometimes giving small polite smiles and even smaller nods.

Peter though was just staring straight ahead at his parents, his gaze never wavering. He was wearing a poker face which nonetheless betrayed a hint of displeasure. To an outside observer it might have seemed Peter was staring at the older couple as though they were doing something rather rude and didn't have the good manners to stop.

After a few more glances and nods, Richard decided to break the tension. He leaned forward in his seat with his arms on his knees and turned towards MJ's direction.

"I'm, er, sorry miss, we didn't catch your name."

Uncharacteristically, MJ looked a tad awkward and slightly flustered.

"Oh, um... I'm, I'm Mary Jane."

Mary suddenly smiled encouragingly.

"Oh. That's similar to my name." She said in a polite and quiet voice.

MJ briefly smiled. "Yeah...guess it is..." Her voice had quietly trailed off with the last few words, once again betraying the awkwardness of the situation.

The group returned to the silence. This time it lasted for only a minute, but again it was Richard who broke the tension by once more addressing Mary Jane. However his polite and casual remarks were also directed at Peter this time.

"...So...how...how do you two know each other?"

Peter's voice was flat and his expression never wavered:

"She's my wife." He said curtly.

Richard and Mary's expressions changed to ones of shock when they heard this. Thier voices however didn't raise an iota.

"You're...oh, we, we certainly have missed out an awful lot." Said Mary, again in her polite quiet voice.

"Yes, last time we saw you, you were barely able to crawl." Richard had smiled and given a small laugh when he said this, evidently thinking they were making some slight headway. Peter's continued flat tone told a different story.

"I got a lot better at that."

The smiles on Richard and Mary's faces wiped away. They looked deferring at Peter

"Well, well yes of course. I just meant..."

At that moment Aunt May bustled into the living room with a tea tray.

"Here we are. Now get them while they are still hot. Richard I remember how you liked yours without milk and Mary is the same. Mary Jane dear I think this that earl grey stuff you said you said you grew a taste for on that trip to London. And Peter, you're sure you don't want anything?"

Peter looked up at Aunt May and for a second he felt like a child again looking up to her for...for what?

He wasn't sure.

Comfort?

_No. _He thought. _Guidance._

But he saw nothing there but a smiling old face. A face he could tell was as lost as he was and was dealing with this in the only way she knew how: by pretending everything was normal. Seeing this Peter just slowly shook his head. Out of the corner of his eye he saw MJ's worried expression as her mouth slightly open and her hand twitched. But she thought better of it and didn't do anything in the end.

"Er...thank you May." Said Richard "You remembered how I liked i-" He stopped as he tasted the tea. An expression of deep satisfaction passed over his face and after he swallowed he sighed deeply.

"I...I never thought it would taste quite that good."

Mary put her hand on Richard's and squeezed it a little bit. Seeing that Peter's mind briefly recalled Mary Jane doing something similar when Aunt May told him about his parents the week before. Right at that moment though, that seemed like years ago.

"Well it has been over twenty years so I suppose I've gotten much better at brewing." May's statements might have been funny if Peter and MJ didn't know she was saying them sincerely as if all this was normal.

"Was the tea rotten where you were staying dear?" She continued.

"I...you could say that..." Said Richard. He was about to take another sip when he looked round the room and decided not to. He put his cup down and leaned forward again, clasping his hands in between his knees.

"I suppose...I suppose you are all wondering just where we have been and, well...why we're here now."

No one answered but it wasn't as if they had to for Richard to continue.

"You didn't know this about us May...nor you Peter. We weren't allowed to tell anyone, even family. Mary and I met when we were secretly working for S.H.I.E.L.D. We were tasked with infiltrating the terrorist group H.Y.D.R.A. and bringing them down from within. Unfortunately that involved us pretending to certain authorities that we were either genuine H.Y.D.R.A. agents or traitors. Because of our jobs we weren't able to spend much time with you Peter but we knew Ben and May would look after you in between missions."

"And besides we were getting close to shutting H.Y.D.R.A. down and going into less hazardous work domestically." Chimed in Mary.

"That's right. When we left for that last time it was supposed to be our final H.Y.D.R.A. mission. We'd gotten close to the man in charge of their Russian base and with one more trip we'd know everything we needed to. Unfortunately...our cover had been blown. Somehow they found out about us. They're agents had disguised themselves as passengers on our plane and hijacked it. They threw us out with parachutes before they blew up the plane, making it look like we'd been killed. They took us back to Russia, to a smaller base where we were kept prisoner. They tortured us for years to extract the information we knew but we never said a word. Thier leader felt that it would be crueller to just let us rot than simply kill us so we were kept there for years. But recently Spider-Man brought the Russian H.Y.D.R.A. base down with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s help. S.H.I.E.L.D. were looking through the base and they found us. They debriefed us and sent us on our way. And...here we are."

"We came straight back to where we had left. We came straight back to our family. We...we were so sorry to hear about Ben..." Mary squeezed Richard's hand again. "With his age in all honesty we weren't sure either he or you May would still be around. But it still was a hard blow."

"We're still dealing with it. But at least you're still around May. And looking as lovely as ever if I dare say."

"Oh you flatterer" Giggled May, who still was plainly in denial about the whole thing.

"And you Peter. Look at you. You've become a man now."

"A married man" Corrected Mary as she smiled at Mary Jane, who awkwardly smiled back.

"Sorry, a _married _ man. Me...Me and your mother are so happy to see you son and...we can't wait to be a family again."

They both smiled at him now, warm, inviting smiles.

"Excuse me I need to take a walk"

With that Peter got up and strode out of the living room and towards the front door, grabbing his jacket from the hook as he went. He'd left so abruptly the front door had slammed shut before anyone could say or do anything. MJ nevertheless quickly got up and went out the door herself.

By the time she was out the door and down the steps leading to it Peter was several houses down and not walking at a particularly relaxed pace. MJ employed a light jog to catch up to him and called out whilst she did so.

"Peter! Peter wait!"

Peter stopped sharply, but only to try and zip up his jacket in the cold weather. When MJ caught up with him his head was bowed in concentration. He was evidently struggling with his jacket, unable to zip it up. He gave a quiet little laugh.

"Heh. Guess we wasted our money MJ. My parents would've come to _us_ if we'd waited."

There was a kind of cynical smile on Peter's face when he said this. He was also slightly gritting his teeth as he continued to struggle with his jacket. As comfortingly as she could manage MJ tried to reach him.

"Peter...I can't imagine how your feeling right now-"

Peter gave up on the coat, and turned to half yell at MJ. In what almost seemed like on breath he finally vented.

"I don't know how to feel! Suddenly they're people in my life who I'm supposed to love and I...I don't...How can I? I don't even know who they are!"

MJ took a tiny step back but continued unperturbed. "Peter they're your parents. They're your family."

Peter continued to vent, gesticulating towards Mary Jane, May's house and other random directions as he did so.

"No, _you're_ my family. Aunt May is my family. Those people in there happen to be related to me. That doesn't mean anything. Not when they were never there for me. Where were they when Flash was beating me up at school? Where were they when I graduated Collage? Where were they when I got married? Where were they all those times I needed them huh? Off playing spies! For all my life MJ! All my life!" His voice started to break with those last words and MJ could tell how much he really was hurting; how much he was fighting back the tears. She adopted a quiet and sensible tone and tried (again) to be understanding; but not just to Peter this time.

"They've explained all that Peter. It wasn't their fault, you're being too hard on them."

Peter looked up at the sky before fixing his gaze back onto MJ; that cynical smile was back again. He addressed her snidely, almost like he was mocking her.

"Yeah: 'them'. Who's to say they even are my parents? How's anyone supposed to know what they look like now after so many years?"

MJ knew Peter didn't mean to be this vaguely rude to her. All the same she felt she best deflate his attitude, so quietly, like a parent talking to their child, she spoke to him again.

"I...I don't know Peter...I just know that if they aren't your parents do you really want to leave Aunt May alone with them? And if they are...do you really want to spend your time playing hero and running away instead of getting to know them?"

That did wipe the cynical look off Peter's face. Now he looked serious and cagey.

"I'm not running away" He said, lightly shaking his head.

"Then why're you out here now?" MJ had crossed her arms and shrugged her shoulders as she asked this.

"...I wasn't going to suit up"

"Yes you were. Whenever there's something really upsetting you, you put on a mask and lose yourself in it for awhile. I speak from experience. But not this time tiger. May needs you...and maybe those two people in there too."

Peter looked down at the ground. MJ couldn't see his face but she imagined it was halfway between a look of slight shame and that of a lost little boy. She tilted her head slightly as if to peer up at his downward face.

"We can go in together if you want."

Peter lightly nodded.

MJ gently took his hand and lead him back to the house.


End file.
